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OPINION

Schools are safe; nix the scary drills

With summer drawing to a close, children across America are engaged in age-old back-to-school rituals. For many, the start of school also involves something newer – active shooter drills, possibly even with fake blood and blanks fired in the hallway for added realism.

Countless schools have adopted these simulations, voluntarily or by legislative mandate. The hope is that students and faculty will be sufficiently prepared.

Although well-intentioned, active shooter drills – introduced after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colorado, and more prevalent after the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting spree in Newtown, Connecticut – can do more harm than good. It is questionable whether children are indeed better prepared by participating in such charades. The downside is in needlessly scaring impressionable youngsters and reinforcing the notion that they are in constant danger.

Pointless preparedness

Emergency drills are nothing new to the school day. Drills to prepare students in the event of fire or other natural catastrophes are commonplace. Yet the aggressive nature of shooting drills staged in many schools makes them qualitatively different and exceptionally more traumatizing to children. The psychological harm that could come from these simulations is not warranted in light of the low probability that such an event will occur.

Notwithstanding the horror associated with these episodes, on a statistical basis, school shootings should be one of parents’ least concerns when it comes to the safety of their children.

The death toll – on average two dozen annually – pales in comparison with the hundreds of youngsters killed in drowning and bicycle accidents.

It is one thing to prepare the faculty and staff for what to do and how to instruct students in the case of a violent episode; it is quite another to involve children whose innocence need not be compromised. Furthermore, many, if not most, students would not recall what they had learned during occasional lockdown drills, especially amidst the panic associated with the real thing.

School shootings are not the only rare yet terrifying events for which emergency training and preparedness can help to save lives. School officials can learn an important lesson of moderation and restraint from other venues that grapple with improbable yet deadly hazards, be they of natural or intentional origin.

Inspiring copycats

Commercial airlines train their flight crews to handle disaster situations, such as the unlikely water landing, but passengers are only asked to watch a brief demonstration of grabbing hold of oxygen masks, without having to practice this maneuver.

Cruise ships require that guests don life jackets and learn the location of their muster stations, but no one has to step foot inside a lifeboat or suffer the experience of being lowered into the water. In case of a catastrophe in the air or at sea, the passengers will be directed where to go and advised what to do.

This same reasonable posture should apply for schools: Prepare the staff, but spare the students. Overpreparing students needlessly risks intensifying their fears and anxiety.

There are security professionals who insist that one can never be too well-prepared, even for a rare event such as a school shooting. There is a critical difference, however, between preparing passengers for the unlikely crash or sinking and readying students for an improbable shooting.

Airlines and cruise lines don’t inspire dangerous ideas by reciting emergency drills. By contrast, there are a few students for whom the notion of wreaking havoc on their schoolmates might seem like an exhilarating idea.

James Alan Fox, the Lipman professor of Criminology, Law and Public Policy at Northeastern University and co-author of “Violence and Security on Campus,” is a member of USA Today’s Board of Contributors.